Ignore the Super Tuesday conclusions of the Mainstream Media (MSM), the ‘conservative’ TV pundits, Radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. Each has an axe to grind. The correct assessment is that for three of the Republican contestants, the results, like the curate’s egg, was good in parts.
The fourth, for whom the egg was all bad, was Marco Rubio. Third place behind Cruz in his own State of Florida signaled the end of the road for his aspirations and it is no surprise that he has withdrawn from the race. His percentage in every one of the five contests was abysmal and caused him to lose the mantle of the Republican establishment to Kasich.
For Kasich, the clear-cut win over Trump on his own Ohio turf, was enough to award him the mantle relinquished by Rubio. In the other four contests he had nothing to be pleased about, but Ohio was enough to crown him favorite of the WSJ, and all those Republican operatives plotting for a contested convention in July. Kasich’s achievement was aided by Cruz’s relatively strong showing against Trump.
For Cruz, the results are sufficient to keep alive the hopes of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, those purists for whom advancing Conservatism must be restricted to Constitutional channels, those who fear extra-Congressional action and raucous working class participation, and those who are uncomfortable with Right-wing politics dominated by Nationalism. For such Republicans, who are only really comfortable with a Conservatism that is respectably intellectual, has antecedents going back to Buckley, Goldwater and Reagan, and who have spent years working to convert the Republican Party to Conservatism, Trump’s anti-intellectual, non-ideological, raw Nationalism, now threatening to hi-jack the Party they had coveted through a Cruz victory, is galling, even (Levin) temporarily unbalancing.
Missouri, at the time of writing, has not been formally decided, and though Trump leads by less than 2,000, it is possible that Cruz may ultimately enjoy the status of winner. In terms of delegates awarded, this near-tie makes little difference. Cruz may be disappointed not to have won comfortably, given his previous victory in neighboring Kansas, but this result is respectable, and given his second places in Florida, North Carolina (where he ran Trump close) and Illinois, he has emerged as Trump’s big primary threat from now on.
For Donald Trump, Florida was a triumph, especially since it is a winner-take-all (delegates) State. Illinois too, was a good victory, and sweeter too since he was driven out of Chicago by Red and Black violence. There is reason to believe that Illinois provided evidence that he can win White blue-collar Democrat voters. If this is true, the consequences are profound for the November general election and might signal a reconfiguration of American politics and the overthrow of the Leftist’s Revolution.
North Carolina was too close to reassure Nationalists that Trump is unstoppable, and his relatively poor showing in Ohio was disappointing. Kasich, a blatant collaborationist who unashamedly supports amnesty and free trade, should have struggled, despite being Governor of the State. It is not possible to say if the MSM and Republican association of Trump with political violence frightened off early sympathizers but we never underestimate the power of the MSM to brainwash good people. It is also not possible to say if Cruz’s opportunism in joining in the ‘blame Trump for violence’ helped him or hurt him.
Trump emerged from Tuesday as the clear leader of the pack but it is likely that Cruz benefited from the unspoken alliance with Rubio and Kasich that released their supporters in some States. We are not convinced that Trump will consolidate as the campaign moves West. The hostility of the MSM, expressed in continual negative reporting, cunningly presented as objectivity, and judgmental editorials, combined with the naked treachery of the Republican Collaborators, can never be discounted.
Thanks to the MSM and Trump’s opportunist Republican rivals, it has now gone down in folklore that Trump said all Mexicans were rapists and criminals. He has never said any such thing. An honest look at his life and his campaign pronouncements make nonsense of charges of racism. Accusations by scribblers like Bret Stephens that Trump and his followers are reincarnations of 1930’s Brown-shirts are slanderous. But the constant repetition of them will take its toll, as they well know.
Despite Trump’s victories, on this website we are not predicting anything, for when so many powerful elements and Collaborators on the Right combine against one man and his followers, it takes only one small incident to furnish a deadly propaganda victory.
Limbaugh this morning said he had received an email from a friend who questioned whether he was being less than honest in order not to lose many listeners. Rush diverted this question away from his constant camouflaged support for Cruz over Trump. He is constantly pairing Trump and Cruz as ‘outsiders’ and anti-establishment who have an equal chance of victory. Cruz is not an outsider, merely a maverick Senator. Rush is torn between a life-time commitment to the Conservatism I described earlier and a reluctant recognition that it is Trump who is the true Counter-Revolutionary.
The good news from the Democrat contest is that the old Trotskyite Revolutionary romantic Sanders has done well enough to dream on and fight on. Hillary will have to keep that fat behind at work even though the contest was sewn up from the beginning.
Here is a quote I saw on a website blog. It is neat and exact. “Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth. Socialism is the unequal distribution of misery”.
There is a strong streak of opportunism in Limbaugh, brought out this year by the spectacular success of Trump. Limbaugh is not thinking in revolutionary terms, and thus misses the significance of what Trump is accomplishing. Because his radio program is advertising driven, Rush is always cognizant not only of his listeners’ opinions, but those of his advertisers, as well. I believe the influence of the latter is a vital concern of little less importance to him than those of his listenership. Money talks.